Several months ago...
A man walks out of a temple in the ruins of the former natives in this land. No matter how hard he searches, he can't find a reason for their disappearance. By this point, he has scoured countless ruins just in search of a clue. He knows he probably doesn't have much longer in his life to be able to search like this, but he needs to find out the reason why that stone was just left lying unguarded in the middle of ruins similar to these. Something that powerful would have surely been found earlier than now. Maybe no one truly understood the nature of it. He certainly didn't until he accidentally wished to know what it was. When the realization dawned on him, he began cautiously testing it. Surely a stone like this was too dangerous and that's most likely why they disappeared. The more he tested it, the more he realized that it was nigh impossible that a trace of evidence would be left behind. Still, he couldn't just give up his search and that led him deep into the hot and humid isthmus known as Central America.
The man stretched, causing most of his bones to creak audibly. "I'm getting way too old for this." He mumbled. "That stone would have been useful right about now." He knew from experience that any lasting effects wore off as soon as you were out of the range of the stone, but all physical and concrete changes stayed permanently. He wanted to stay healthy for as long as possible, if the stone allowed it, so instead he faked his own death with the help of the stone and sent it to his grandson whom he trusted more than his own son. "How did my son turn out the way he did?" The old man sighed. "He's such a cold-hearted work-loving idiot." He wipes the sweat from his forehead as he glances at the sun to check his time. "Maybe I'm not one to complain, considering I left him and his mother so I could go adventuring."
He starts walking down from the top of the temple and notices three men wearing hiking gear wandering around at the bottom of the temple. Having lived with the current natives of this area, he had picked up enough of the language to get by in everyday conversations, so he calls out to them in their native tongue. "Hello, are you here to sightsee?"
They glance at each other and whisper, then glance back at the man. One of them replies in a heavily Spanish-accented English. "Who might you be?"
"My name is Doug Wilson."
They nod to themselves and carry on up the temple stairs. Doug starts walking down towards them as well. When they meet, one of the men speaks in perfect English, "Where is the stone?"
Doug looks at the man who just spoke and looks at the other two. They don't seem to even notice that he just spoke. He just stands there confused.
The one who hadn't spoke yet eerily turns his head towards Doug and speaks in a Cuban accent. "We know you had possession of it, Mr. Madison. Or is it Sr. Madison now?"
He shakes his head. "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just here to search for reasons why the Aztecs, Incas and Mayan disappeared."
The Spanish man grabs one of Doug's arm and the English man grabs the other. They lift him up in the air by the armpits and hold him there. The Cuban man speaks. "Magic leaves traces, my friend. You just have to know how to find it." He sticks his hand on Doug's belly and it slowly phases through, causing immense pain to well up within Doug. After a short while, all that can be heard at the abandoned temple are the screams of a woman.
---- Jon's Perspective ----
In the present day...
Jon's pacing back and forth in his bedroom while Karyn is sitting on his bed.
"They are after the stone." Jon says for the umpteenth time. "What are we supposed to do?"
"Can you calm down for a second?" Karyn says. "You still haven't fully explained it to me yet."
Jon takes a few deep breaths to calm himself down and then begins his explanation. "That cameraman was there to determine who had the stone and then some woman called me out of class to try and take the stone from me."
"Aren't you over thinking this, Jon?" Karyn asked. "If they were after the stone, wouldn't they try to take you by surprise or take it by force?"
"Karyn, she asked if they could look at the stone. How else am I supposed to take it?!?" He sighs. "But you do have somewhat of a point. If they were after the stone, why would they let me go after leading me into a trap?"
"See?" She smiles. "Now you're rationalizing. However, just to be on the safe side, we should ask what their intentions are."
"How are you so much calmer than me? They could easily use this for who knows what."
Karyn blushes a bit. "Well, I kind of thought of it as our safety net and was already thinking up ways to use it."
Jon smacks his forehead. "Duh. Why didn't I think to use the stone against them?"
"Jon." Karyn walks towards him.
"What?" Jon turns to face her as she flicks his forehead. "Ow! What was that for?"
"We're not using it against them, only as a fail-safe. Got it?"
"Alright, alright. Only a fail-safe." He reluctantly agrees.
"You said they were magic users correct?" She asks still unconvinced by his words.
"Yes." Jon says slowly.
"What if they had ways to deal with your magic? Wouldn't that stop you from using the stone?"
"Oh " He looks at the stone in the box then back at Karyn. "When did you get so smart?"
She just looks at him funny. "I've always been this way, I just don't study as much as I probably should."
He sighs. "Meanwhile, I study as hard as I can and I still only get the same average grades as you."
She scowls. "Cramming stuff in your head in one night isn't studying."
"Bah, enough about school. What should we do about the stone?"
An unknown voice echoes in Jon's room. "This is where I come in." An almost picture perfect image of the photographer from school is projected on darkest wall of the room. "My name is Leon. Oh, and don't worry about giving us the stone. My partner was just being a little too hasty in trying to discern the stone and its origin."
Jon looks at the image questioningly before shrugging and talking back to it. "She did say something like, 'it could have been from our world' back there. So what about its origin do you know?"
"That's something we're still trying to figure out. The magical power is far greater than anything we have seen before, so it's hard to actually pinpoint a location in our world where it could have existed."
Jon looks at the stone again and still sees the black glow he saw earlier. He thought that meant the stone itself was corrupt, but considering he got here without any weird stipulations happening, it must mean something else. He shows the rock in its current form to the man calling himself Leon. "Does this weird glow give you any hints?"
Karyn looks at the stone. "What glow? It's just a white rock."
"You don't see the black light it's emitting?"
She just shakes her head. "No, I don't see a thing."
Leon looks at the rock he's holding contemplatively. "Let me confirm something real quick." The image on the wall disappears.
---- Leon's Perspective ----
Even when shown the stone directly I could only vaguely see what Jon was talking about. It did look ominous, like the stone itself was cursed or had some sort of evil presence and yet, the stone itself felt neutral, as if it was nothing more than a machine. I turned to Astred who just shook her head, then to Sakura who shrugged. I looked down and thought, 'Am I overthinking this?'
Astred breaks the silence, "We might not be able to see what he's talking about, but that doesn't mean we should ignore it."
I nod without looking her way. "I know that, it's just " I look up at the sky in the forest. "I think there's something else moving that we don't know about. I hope I'm just overthinking this and our enemy is a lot more obvious than it seems." I look back at them and they just give me looks that tell me they're out of ideas.
Knowing it's better to share this information than to keep it, I project myself back into Jon's room. Jon and the girl who Jon called Karyn seemed to have barely noticed my return. Jon seems lost in thought and Karyn is just looking at the stone in his hand with what I would almost describe as lust. Could this be the stone's influence or something else? Jon eventually noticed my arrival and stores the stone back in the box it was in, while Karyn, on the other hand, stares intently at that box.
I clear my throat so as to get both of their attentions. "I'll be honest, I can't see the aura you described as vividly, but the stone itself feels neutral. So my theory is that something other than the stone is influencing it. I am also unable to determine if the entity in question has good or bad intent."
"So that's it?" Jon says a bit annoyed. "I thought I'd at least get an answer I could work with."
"Life's full of unexplainable phenomena, sometimes it's easier to just accept them as they are."
"But the wishing stone itself is bad news. It's likely that everything could go out of whack in just one wish. This aura on top of all of that just makes me think that I should get rid of it."
I raise my hand to stop him. "Getting rid of it is probably the last thing you should do, it will only create loopholes where you would never own it, but it would always exist. Reality is not easily changed. A world might be simple, but changing the entire universe, alternate realities included, would require an impossible amount of power."
Jon grinds his teeth. "Then what am I supposed to do with this stone?"
I sigh. "You're the only one who can see the stone and its phenomena in its true form currently, so consider yourself to be the wielder of the stone and trust no one else with it. Not even Karyn over there." I say pointing to her.
Karyn finally breaks out of her daze. "Huh? What were we talking about?"
I shake my head. "I was saying that there might be something capable of controlling everything but the stone."
"Oh, right. Of course we were talking about the stone " Karyn goes back off into a daze, staring at the box once again.
Jon looks at me with fear in his eyes, "You don't think?"
I just nod. "Very much so."
Jon hastily takes out the stone and makes a wish. "I wish Karyn was back in her room and thought that I had lost the stone." She disappears from the room and Jon sighs in relief. "That was far too close."
"I don't think it's over yet. This is probably just the calm before the storm." I look around the room to make sure there's no suspicious activity. "Whatever you wished for before I arrived must have made you aware of the danger around the stone."
Jon collapses on his bed. "What am I supposed to do now? I can't fight. I certainly don't have the capabilities to combat something more powerful than the stone."
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
"What?" Jon looks my way.
"You're thinking of the stone as an object. Not something capable of defending itself."
"How am I supposed to do that? There will always be a loophole somewhere." He covers his face with his hands.
"So you're giving up?"
"No. I just can't see a way out of this."
"Jon, the stone belongs to you. It wasn't given to me nor do I ever want something that powerful. I have my own ways of dealing with every situation. I'd suggest that you find yours. If you don't, well, let's just say that the gates of Hades might open up."
Jon glares at me, "Is that a threat?"
"No, a warning. I might not be here to help you when the time comes, so consider what you yourself can do." I turn off my projection and leave him there to ponder while I prepare myself to stand against whatever evil comes my way.
---- Karyn's Perspective ----
Karyn finally stop spacing out in her room. "What was I doing?" She mumbles to herself. "Oh yeah. Jon said he had dropped the stone on his way to school, so we left early to try to find it. We then split up to go back to our houses to make sure it didn't somehow end up there."
Karyn walks to a mirror and checks herself out. She sighs despondently after seeing her wish enhanced breasts and blonde hair. Why did she have to wish for them? Jon probably already liked her the way she was before. Maybe she should find a loophole and use the stone to abuse that. That would certainly help her get Jon's attention more. She smiles to herself in the mirror, a bit more seductively that she thought she was capable of. Actually, what if she were to enhance herself more, not just change herself back, but change herself to be Jon's ideal girlfriend? That would certainly give her a higher chance to become his girl. Maybe in the meantime, she should try showing off her new breasts to see if he likes them more than her old ones. She hops in place with glee.
"Alright," she tells herself, "I need to find that stone, but first, let me see if I have any suitable clothes. If I don't, I'll go shopping." She rummages through her closet unaware of the dark presence lurking behind her.
The ominous thing chuckles to itself knowing full well she can't hear him. "It's so easy to manipulate someone's mind. Unguarded desires are the easiest to make known to someone and then they will just impulsively act on them on their own." It glances at its new pawn. "It's only a matter of time before I get my hands on what was once mine." The presence leaves Karyn to her vices to find more prey to use.
"Hmm?" Karyn stops. "I thought I heard something." She shrugs. "Oh well, it's not like it matters right now. I just need Jon to be my boyfriend."
